A double affair | Collections | The Huntington

A double affair | Collections | The Huntington

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Trooper to the Southern Cross
Rare Books
"Angela Thirkell, the famous novelist, was born in London in 1890, and travelled to Australia after World War I with her husband and 2 sons. The basis for 'Trooper to the Southern Cross' was found in the astonishing facts of their voyage to Australia on what was primarily a troopship returning about 800 Diggers to Australia. Angela Thirkell on a ship full of returning Diggers! A buried comic masterpiece. Hidden under a pseudonym, Angela Thirkell, best-selling chronicler of the English counties, is now revealed to be a brilliant satirist of the Australian character. Thirty years before Barry Humphries (who loves the book) she captures our idiom and our tastes -- with deadpan innocence and no mercy, her irony sails right home"--Back cover.
657408
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Angela Thirkell collection
Manuscripts
Two diaries, one authored by Angela Thirkell and another by her mother Margaret Mackail; a photograph album compiled by Margaret Mackail; and loose photographs. Both diaries consist of brief, datebook-type entries, though Margaret Mackail's is more detailed. Photographs are primarily of Angela Thirkell throughout her life.
mssThirkell
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Angela Thirkell collection
Manuscripts
Two diaries, one authored by Angela Thirkell and another by her mother Margaret Mackail; a photograph album compiled by Margaret Mackail; and loose photographs. Both diaries consist of brief, datebook-type entries, though Margaret Mackail's is more detailed. Photographs are primarily of Angela Thirkell throughout her life.
mssThirkell
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What did it mean?
Rare Books
"The Friends of Barsetshire have been inquiring about the progress of various old friends; among them Lydia Merton and her husband, now not only a Q.C., but destined in Coronation Year to further honours. The little town of Northbridge where they live is, of course, having its own Coronation festivities. In these the Mertons have many other old Northbridge friends are involved, including the Provençal scholar Miss Pemberton and her lodger Mr. Downing, who lives take a fresh turn when the charming widow Mrs. Turner comes back to live in the town. It is through the Mertons that Aubrey Clover, the brilliant actor-manager-author, and his wife Jessica Dean promise to put on a little show for the Coronation Entertainment and again through Lydia that the overgrown diffident Lord Mellings, elder son of the Earl of Pomfret, is offered a part in the show. The Coronation Pageant of Northbridge gives Mrs. Thirkell an opportunity for her usual quick observation and effortless humour and we are glad to meet again the incorrigibly good-natured Bunce girls with their happy fatherless children and overflowing good-humour. Our old friend Canon Fewling has been succeeded at St. Sycroax by a delightful young clergyman, a keen amateur actor, whose only grief is that he cannot be martyred in one of the historical episodes. One middle-aged romance comes to an unexpected and happy ending and there is a delicate sketch of calf-love at its best, leaving no grief behind it, and an equally restrained episode between two older people who exchange little more than a few looks. For the cross-word kind of mind there is a traditional country rhyme, discovered by Mr. Wickham, the Mertons' agent, which keeps us guessing till the very last page"--From dust jacket.
657414
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Marling Hall : a novel
Rare Books
"As the war continues, the Marlings cope with friends, relatives, and 'outsiders.' The definition of an 'outsider' is a subtle one; the Harveys, a brother and sister who rent a nearby house for the duration seem eminently suited for inclusion. Gradually, however, through a series of misadventures, mostly involving chickens, their landlady, Mrs. Smith (one of the local non-gentry eccentrics) turns out to be 'one of our own.' Utter confusion surrounds building a hen coop, chasing chickens, and futile attempts at foiling Mrs. Smith. Lucy, the younger Marling daughter, barges about noisily managing and mismanaging, but in the end, is sensitive to the growing attachment between her friend Capt. Barclay and her widowed sister Lettice. Miss Bunting (retired governess) and Miss Merriman (companion to the redoubtable Lady Emily Leslie) are instrumental in thwarting the charming but philandering cousin David so as to snare Lettice for Barclay. As an added bonus the Harveys’ housekeeper becomes engaged to the local carpenter and their maid to Ed Pollett, 'immune to education' but an exceptionally competent handyman"--From Angela Thirkell Society of North America's website.
657411
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Before lunch : a novel
Rare Books
"Middle-aged Catherine Middleton, married to an obtuse but endearing older man, is the still center of a swirl of two generations of 'gentry' on the brink of WW II. The activities of youngsters and contemporaries go on around her and it is only gradually that one sees how, without conscious manipulation, nothing happens without her. The characters are subtly and humorously drawn -- keep an eye on the hypochondriac and self-absorbed Miss Starter who displays a shrewd gift for defining the essentials and deflating the fatuous. At the end, youngsters and oldsters are properly sorted out and paired off, mostly as expected, after several false starts. Alistair, the older man who sets off after the 'ingénue' is nudged back into place with Catherine's sister-in-law (his contemporary). She, in turn, sees 'her young man' off to seek his dream, leaving her bereft of the companions of her mind and heart -- duty and honor intact, with the notion of 'self-fulfillment at all costs' decades away."--From Angela Thirkell Society of North America's website.
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